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Possible brain damage from drug use???

Streetcow

Streetcow

Bluelighter
Joined
Aug 9, 2015
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199
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Canada
so Iv had this problem for a year now and Iv decided it would be worth a shot to voice to see if there is anyone who could give me any thoughts to whats going on I don't need professional opinion I would just like somewhere to start because I can't find anything anywhere on this

(I can't just go up to a doctor saying I think Iv gotten brain damage from drug use the slammer is a tough place to be mate and giving the doctor false information regarding this could end me up with a false diagnosis)

so What iv been experiencing in terms of damage like is

-whenever my adrenaline is pumping I can feel all movement of blood not just a little bit EVERY TINY MOVEMENT (When this specific symptom occurs its usually coupled with muscle spasms and alcohol like effects without the euphoria) and then all of a sudden my motor skills start declining and colors flash before me I also during this feel quite disassociated but the thing is it doesn't happen when I'm exercising it mostly happens when adrenaline starts pumping from times when I'm threatened or scared like I remember I was almost knocked out when a police car rolled by and I had drugs on me this feeling can also not even be triggered by adrenaline of course whenever adrenaline is in play its guaranteed to be there but sometimes it just happens for no reason at all I remember once I was walking down a hallway and this happened I collapsed onto the wall because I need support to stand up

drugs iv taken in the past are: heroin (possibly laced with pcp on acouple of occasions),morphine,codeine,DXM (dextromethorphan),obscure designer drugs (mostly opiates and dissacociatves which I have great suspicion is what caused it but weird thing is no symptoms like this have been associated with the designer drugs like any that iv tried ever),DMT,LSD,Psilocin and psilocybin,crystal meth,methylphenidate (ritalin),ethylphenidate,nicotine,alcohol and that is pretty much it

any thoughts? of course once again I don't expect professional opinion just somewhere to start iv looked into it for the past year but with no access to actual medical opinion nothing has popped up in my research I just need somewhere to start

-streetcow
 
It is hard to actually measure brain damage I think. It is much easer to simply treat or manage symptoms, unless symptoms lead to the discovery of a more serious problem.

I'm pretty sure you are simply experiencing panic attacks based on your description. Hyper sensitivity, the feeling of dissassociation and fear, adrenaline, all indicate panic attaacks, and I'm pretty sure the police car rolling by is your "trigger".

The key to beating these is to expose yourself to the trigger until it stops causing a panic attack. In your case, spending time walking by police cars and noting your reaction.

Exposure and response prevention is the key, where you expose yourself to that which triggers is it but you don't try to do anything about the anxiety like look around nervously, engage your fearful thoughts, etc. Over time your brain will learn that the trigger isn't something life-threatening and will evaporate.

On a slightly different note, being afraid of police is usually which makes them suspicious and notice you in the first place (same with being afraid of anything or anyone for that matter). The key to overcoming this kind of fear is to start learning about your legal rights and how to flex them, learning the art of stealth and secrecy, and also studying the police themselves, how they think, what they do, who they work for, etc, knowledge usually is the answer to fear, the more you know the less you have to fear.

And on a direct note about that, from what I've studied, police in general are concerned with violent and sexual offenders more than anything, drug use is something that is a very grey area and people have a lot of differing opinions on it. I think that the people who get targetted for drugs are big-time gangsters and serious criminals who do violent and messed-up things as well as their drug use and sales, which makes sense why they go after them. Of course that's not to say that it is a great idea to be using these drugs and showing them in broad daylight, more, a realization that people in general, even police, don't really care at all about drug use that much as long as it isn't causing a problem with other people.

Just remember that the police themselves have the exact same response going by shifty-looking gangsters types who might be violent. In general, as long as you aren't harming other people or causing a scene or problems, nobody is even going to notice your or target you at all.

For an experiment, try spending time actually looking at police and who they are even observing. Chances are, unless you are drawing attention to yourself, you just blend into the crowd. Drugs can make you think that everyone is focusing on you, even when nobody even notices you at all.
 
When is the last time you used drugs?/Are you still using?/Was it heavy/long term use?/did you ever have an addiction? Overdoses...?

We need to know these things :)
 
It does indeed sound like panic attacks (not to belittle your situation, panic attacks are a big deal). I would practice mindfulness meditation with deep diaphragmatic breathing and try to stay sober for a while.

Don't worry, your brain itself is probably not damaged, but the "fear" parts of your brain might be too strong and we're gonna want to try and shrink those parts by not using them, and strengthen other good cognitive parts of your brain by using them lots.
 
happy Hedgehog: for what you have said it makes quite a lot of sense and also no I have never harmed another human being and I'm not the shady type either

but in terms of panic attacks Im not totally sure it could very well be and Im definitely looking into it

but it just feels chemical and EXTEREMELY similar to being high and afraid also being that it happens at random times and not just when I'm panicky raises some pretty red flags of course once a again it could be and I will be looking more into the law to know my rights (iv been meaning to but never got around to it)

thanks for the well written response thank you!

Girl with the blue hair: Well in answer to all of those questions chronologically

Iv been using drugs for the past 3 years I did some stuff as a teen (the usual teenage drugs lsd weed and shrooms nicotine nothing serious)

but three years ago about I found some pills (hydrocodone) from when I was an insomniac (late teenage years)

of course when I was in late teenage years ago I didn't know they were opiates and I just wrote them off I was tapered but it didn't raise flags back then

but 22 year old me knew better because I was getting into research chemicals (hadn't tried them yet but was interested) and learning chemistry of course I was a second year in collage (I had been held back before) so I tried about 8 of the remaining 15 pills and oh man was I in heaven and that is what got me into heroin

skip a year (I was 23 at the time) I got kicked out of collage for getting caught shooting pure morphine I was a heavy user and also appreciated dissociatives and psychedelics (Im a very spiritual person)

I was couch surfing and since I had a much greater understanding of chemistry using regular synthesis methods was making various drugs and hustling them but one night I used a regular bottle of DXM and snorted some OTC codeine pills I had picked up and I was high and alone (my friend went out)

well bad mistake because I also had a whole bottle of 60% vodka laying around and while under the influence drank the whole thing now I can't remember from here what happen but apparently like 30 minutes later I was stumbling outside puking and almost passed out

an ambulance was called and Im lucky to be alive my bac was 42% (imagine you could take shots of my blood if you had my blood type now thats a thought maybe cannibals do it) and of course that was definitely an overdose we are not quite at 24 yet though

so after I was recovering halfway to 24 I also tried committing suicide because I couldn't get out of my addiction to heroin and was using insane amounts a day so I went to the store high and bought a bottle a big bottle of psudeoephedrine and luckily for me I was so high

(I mean to the point where the cashier almost didn't let me buy it but its a stimulant and I was on heroin and DXM so I was on depressants and she didn't think I was trying to get high on it)

that I ended up taking the whole bottle in front of the clerk in three gulps (it was like 30 extra strength pseudoepihedrine and tylenol) and I tried walking out saying it was ok but the clerk forced me to come with her (I was too high to fight back) and There was an ambulance called

I ended up having my stomach pump and drinking a whole glass of charcoal but more than half of the pfed definitely kicked in I was in the hospital in patient clinic for a month and luckily the police couldn't do much since I was using codeine that was over the counter and dxm so no legal action but I was there for awhile

after this I really decided to quit using the codeine and heroin so I went to rehab for a couple months I was almost 24 at this point

so from there I became a more responsible drug user using only two time a week and avoiding addictive drugs and I was doing very well then about a month after I hit 25 (the age I am now soon I will be 26) then The symptoms above started to happen and I became more paranoid even though I wasn't using serious drugs

(occasional research chemicals and testing new drugs on myself never using them more than 3 times on medium doses I tried to get psychs but as of late up here the only thing you get is meth and weed right now)

so Iv been dealing with these symptoms while its been a bit rough it hasn't gotten too bad yet but I'm a bit worried and obviously If I'm gonna give a straight story it can't be to someone who could possibly called the pigs)

is this enough info?

Cotcha Yankinov

Oh I actually meditate on a daily basis and my body DEFINITELY thanks me for it and yeah like before it could be panic attacks but the symptoms feel so chemical

any thoughts?

-streetcow
 
Sounds like panic attacks/anxiety to me. Hypersensitivity to every little thing is characteristic, so is having your blood pressure drop afterwards (can lead to vision changing colors, felling light headed/faint, actually fainting/falling over, etc). Especially if you are feeling paranoid/anxious about anything in your daily life - panic attacks go hand in hand with anxiety-type disorders.

It's not neccesarily indicative of physical damage to the brain, and if I were to bet on it, I'd say you'd be totally normal if looked at via MRI or CT.

If it makes you feel any better, side effects that crop up months to years afterwards of heavy drug abuse may not neccesarily have been caused directly by the drugs - it's hard to point the finger as to what exactly causes the development of anxiety.
 
yo sekio

yes I have looked into it and it seems my symptoms match up I'm thinking of trying valerian for it and seeing what happens (due to the positive messages I got from reading my thread about benzos and valerian for anxiety and sleep disorders)

thank you everyone who took notice in this thread I'm now pretty sure its anxiety and that it can be cleared

-Streetcow
 
Streetcow, since your forum interaction with Cotcha Yankinov, seen together, are you now Beef Strokin'off? (dumb Russian word pun for Beef Stroganoff. Like the one about the Russian name for a Sexually Transmitted Disease being rotyercockov. etc.)

The great thing about brain damage and brain cell loss is you never know what your missing. So worrying about it is kind of a double handicap. (Like bovine masturbation leading to a Slavic venereal disease)
 
If you are going to buy valerian then make sure you are at least going to buy a high potency, full spectrum once, containing at least >4mg valerenic acid. Just look on amazon. don't waste time or money anywhere else.

And sleep is about all valerian might be good for. It has been proven recently to only have actvivity at the 5-HT 5a receptor, not any other receptors - such as the the GABA A or adenosine repteptors - as previously thought.

https://www.researchgate.net/profil...r_in_vitro/links/54c004f60cf21674ce9cf3f0.pdf

Based on your symptoms, and the fact that you are looking for something for panic/anxiety/something effective for insomnia, I am going to recommend these: magnolia bark extract and bacalin. Both of these of high potency, full agonist GABA A benzodiazepine site agonists.

Here is some info on the intrinsic BZD/ GABA A ionophore activity of magnolia bark:

http://naturalsleepresearch.info/Seditol_09_Study.pdf

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0028390812002894

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3769637/ (about honnoliol, the ingredient in magnolia bark)


bacailin: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18723037


http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0014299903014225

Phenibut, a GABA B agonist, will also help you. Just don't use it like people here do. That is why it has such a bad reputation. Use the prescribed dosages as you need it. 250 to 500 mg. maybe 750. people on here like to take 2.5 sometime even upwards of 4 grams all the time and not get sick or suffer withdrawals - and they don't wean either tsk tsk - and then they have the nerve to bash it and call it shit when they could have well have avoided their misery by weaning (I mean, nobody would go and take like 70mg of diazepam like 3-4 times a day for 5 days straight and not expect to be perfectly straight and then not bash it...anyways....)

They are all easily available and readily cheap.

Buy I would see your doctor as he could get you something better probably.

Alright now, was anything specific going on or were you using anything specific or had you just used anything specific (how much dxm had you done in that time period - and by RCs which one's do you mean?) when these symptoms started manifesting themselves exactly?
 
Don't use Phenibut -- there are many many better anxiolytics (sorry GWBH, but Phenibut ranks right next to Meth on the shit to stay away from list)

Valerian has been known to cause seizures upon cessation -- it is both a GABA agonist and inhibitor based on selective sub unit of the receptor. GWBH is wrong -- her study simply identifies valerenic acid is ALSO a partial 5HT agonist.
 
Somehow, I would prefer using valerian or chamomile for a moderate to long term over using other, less well established plant based anxiolytics. The reason being, if they are anything at all like "classical" benzodiazepine usage, it will lose efficacy pretty rapidly.

It's worthwhile trying to treat the underlying cause of the anxiety, whatever that may be, rather than just dealing with its symptoms indefinitely.
 
sekio said:
Somehow, I would prefer using valerian or chamomile for a moderate to long term over using other, less well established plant based anxiolytics. The reason being, if they are anything at all like "classical" benzodiazepine usage, it will lose efficacy pretty rapidly.

It's worthwhile trying to treat the underlying cause of the anxiety, whatever that may be, rather than just dealing with its symptoms indefinitely.
Click to expand...

I thought tachyphylaxis in benzodiazepines only affected the sedative type properties, and that anxiolytic effect could be maintained for years of continued usage (hence why benzodiazepines for sleep issues are not recommended for more than 4 weeks, but doctors regularly prescribe them for anxiety for a long time)?
 
aced126 said:
I thought tachyphylaxis in benzodiazepines only affected the sedative type properties, and that anxiolytic effect could be maintained for years of continued usage (hence why benzodiazepines for sleep issues are not recommended for more than 4 weeks, but doctors regularly prescribe them for anxiety for a long time)?
Click to expand...

I was under the impression that some of the reason that tolerance to the anxiolytic effect develops slower was because the muscle relaxant effects play a role in the anxiolytic effect and tolerance is gained to muscle relaxation slower, although it can certainly develop as well. Any corrections welcome.

Nagelfar said:
Streetcow, since your forum interaction with Cotcha Yankinov, seen together, are you now Beef Strokin'off?
Click to expand...

Hahahahaha this is super agonism at my humor receptors
 
Sounds like an acute anxiety disorder to me, and not brain damage... but I'm no expert, and we can't really diagnose you properly online.

If you were to take anxiolytic meds and this problem went away, then you'd know it's psychosomatic.

Hypervigilance is often a long-term side effect of drug use because of what it does to neural receptors, but the brain is a resilient organ and can usually heal to a great degree over time if you remain drug free.
 
shugenja said:
Don't use Phenibut -- there are many many better anxiolytics (sorry GWBH, but Phenibut ranks right next to Meth on the shit to stay away from list)

Valerian has been known to cause seizures upon cessation -- it is both a GABA agonist and inhibitor based on selective sub unit of the receptor. GWBH is wrong -- her study simply identifies valerenic acid is ALSO a partial 5HT agonist.
Click to expand...

Valerian does not show any affinity to BZD binding sites.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4122768/

And phenibut is a perfectly fine drug when used in its therapeutic, medical dosages of 250-500 mg bid - tid. Not upwards of 1000mg... It's just a gabapentinoid...
 
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